Archive

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADA’S new bookselling giant Chapters and Indigo Books & Music will put 23 retail outlets up for sale as part of an agreement with the country’s Federal Competition Bureau, paving the way for the imminent merger of the two chains.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A DRAFT EU directive is being drawn up in Brussels, which would harmonise the way that national governments protect intellectual property rights within the EU. The law would also provide guidelines for the cooperation of agencies enforcing intellectual property rights, in taking action against breaches and theft of copyright.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has denied claims that it has been funding anti-Semitic textbooks used in the Palestinian Authority’s education service, even though the EU bankrolls 50 per cent of the nascent government’s budget.

MEP’s have been sent examples of Palestinian textbooks that include passages such as “Treachery and disloyalty are character traits of the Jews and therefore one should beware of them.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL action plan to fight forest fires is being drawn up with the assistance of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation. Experts from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and USA have been discussing proposals for a system involving mutual assistance and coordinated approaches to forest fire management.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REPORT release by the International Labour Organisation has claimed that EU hotel, catering and tourism workers earn on average 20 per cent below the European Union average for workers in other sectors. Together, the hotel, catering and tourist sectors produce 3-4 per cent of gross domestic product in most countries worldwide, according to the ILO, but most of their workers are unskilled, in part-time or low-wage jobs.…

BY RICHARD HURST, IN JOHANNESBURG
AN EMPOWERMENT group – a company set up in South Africa to promote the economic well-being of blacks – called Pamodzi Investment Holdings has entered into a joint venture with the established Protea Hotel group to create a new five star brand of African Pride Hotels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COMPULSORY minimum standards, for the treatment of asylum seekers within the European Union, have been proposed by the European Commission.

Using its new powers to table European legislation on justice and home affairs, the Commission has proposed that Member States provide a “minimum level of support with special help for the vulnerable,” such as unaccompanied children, torture victims and pregnant women.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States and the European Union are poised for another battle of wits at the World Trade Organisation, over the rights of governments to protect their own audio-visual sectors, especially through the use of subsidies.

WTO members are about to examine in detail proposals made by the USA on the liberalisation of the international audio-visual sector, which it wants to promote through the ongoing WTO round on service industries.…

BY KATE REW
A DISPUTE over tax revenue for the 7,860 acres of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport has yet to be settled and could hold up a proposed development of services. The airport – owned by Dallas and Fort Worth – wants to develop its services on land in the neighbouring city of Grapevine, but wants its authorities to split revenue from new development equally with its two large neighbours.…

BY KATE REW
THE REPUBLICAN Governor of Illinois, George Ryan, has said that he wants the state to buy land for a new regional airport for Peotone (correct), near Chicago. But Chicago Democrats have vowed to fight the move, although both sides agree that the lack of air capacity in the state needs to be addressed.…